Farmers Movement Archive

Officials on job, traffic may resume at Singhu today

Tribune News ServiceSonepat, December 12A day after farmers left the protest site at the Singhu border, the Delhi Police, along with the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), began removing the concrete boulders, iron nails, containers and other barricades today. As per the NHAI, it would take a day or two to restore smooth flow of traffic on the NH-44.The police had put multiple layers of barricades on the border after they had a face-off with thousands of farmers who tried to enter the National Capital on November 27 last year. But, after the violence in Delhi on January 26 during the farmers’ “tractor march”, the police had tightened the barricading at the border by constructing around 4-5 feet wide concrete boulders on the road and put multilayer barbed fencing over it and had placed giant nails on the road, besides putting heavy containers filled with sand on the border to avert any law and order situation.The police had also placed such multilevel barricading at three-four points within around two kilometres towards Delhi and a company of BSF was also deployed on the spot along with the Delhi Police.Soon after the farmers vacated the site, the road cleanliness drive was started on both sides in Haryana and Delhi. The Kundli police with the help of NHAI have removed all barricades from the road. The Delhi Police, too, began removing barricades today. A Delhi Police official, on the condition of anonymity, said senior officers visited the site yesterday and barricades were being removed only after their orders.Kundli SHO Ravi Kumar said a drive with the NHAI to clean the roads had been launched today and almost all roads had been cleared on the Haryana side. The smooth flow of traffic would resume after barricading would be removed from the Singhu border, he added.Anand Dahiya, Deputy General Manager (Technical), NHAI, said the NH-44 had been cleared to resume the traffic on Haryana side and the dry maintenance of the road would be completed by tomorrow evening.“Around 14 JCBs, two graders and poclain machines have been pressed into service to remove barricades,” he said, adding: “The blockade on the Delhi side would be completely removed by Monday evening.”

The Tribune

2021-12-13